Wargaming Wednesday Returns!

In an outreach effort dedicated to reaching out (hence the name) to more non-wargamers, I've resumed posting about wargames at the Castalia House blog.  Each Wednesday, the publisher's blog features a post related to wargames called, not surprisingly, Wargames Wednesday.  I share duties with a number of other smart and erudite wargamer types who focus more on the hex-and-counter style wargames.  This week, I detailed a quick rundown of A Song of Blades and Heroes, and next week will see a write-up of my first stumbling attempts at playing the novel and quirky sci-fi game Rogue Planet.

Over the last month, the blog ran a series of posts detailing Avalon Hill's Battle of the Bulge that is well worth a read for wargamers of all stripes.  Here, for your dining and dancing pleasure, is a link to all five parts of this in-depth analysis of a classic wargame:

Avalon Hill’s The Battle of the Bulge (1981) – Part I
Avalon Hill’s The Battle of the Bulge (1981) – Part II
Avalon Hill’s The Battle of the Bulge (1981) – Part III
Avalon Hill’s The Battle of the Bulge (1981) – Part IV
Avalon Hill’s The Battle of the Bulge (1981) – Part V

If you like that, stick around - the team there regularly produces the best news and analysis of today's fantasy and sci-fi culture available today.

Hump Day Dump Day #7: Short and Sweet

Started a second job, so things are busier than usual.  To free up some room in the schedule, I might have announce a few layoffs in the Children Department on the home front.

D&D Micro-Settings (The Dragon's Flagon): When I think of "settings" for D&D-type games, I think of two different sorts of products. One is the sort in which an entire campaign may take place, detailing in broad strokes a fairly large geographic area. Many settings of this type have been published, and you probably know at least a few of them by name if not more intimately: Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and the Known World (a.k.a. Mystara,) among many, many others. With this type of setting, you generally get a map, a description of the various regions, the nations and cultures, major NPCs and factions, history and legends, and probably some adventure hooks and a few new character classes or sub-classes. It's the second kind that I want to talk about today.

Black Ops (A Life in Miniature): We had an opportunity to try the new Osprey rule set "Black Ops" last Thursday at the Club. A high ranking diplomat had been kidnapped by local rebels some where in Central Asia. The rebels were a mix of poor quality militia, mercenaries and an FSB team on site to interrogate the prisoner. A special forces team supported by regular troops were despatched to rescue him.

Into the Dungeon (Wee Blokes):  The party step into the Dungeon. This is the start of the Never-ending Dungeon. For this first level they have a map in their possession, so can temper their main rescue mission with exploration with the hope of bolstering their experience and equipment for future levels.

Hump Day Dump Day #6

It's hump day, so I've got to include a picture of a camel...get it?  A sopwith camel?  Eh? EH?

Ahhh, who am I kidding, I was just looking for an excuse to post the cover of this great game. In high school, my game crew bought a cheap second hand copy of this and played the heck out of it for years.  Well worth a look if you ever cross paths with it.

Traveling Set (BattReps): Due to the popular request, I am presenting here my traveling wargaming set. If you are like me, and you spend better part of the week in hotels on business trips, out of home, you would like to take your hobby with you. Here is the way I am doing that.

Lost Mines of Phandelver (Dungeon of Signs): Forgotten Realms was the worst thing to happen to D&D, honestly, it's just a terrible setting that reeks of bathos and takes itself far to serious. It plunders everything cliched and overused from Tolkien but abandons all the strangeness and mythological references. It fills the land with huge civilized bastions of good like Waterdeep and exhaustively defines their systems of governance, but allows these nations to be plagued by trifling enemies like goblin tribes. Forgotten Realms embraces a pedantic faux-medievalism, but then uses a contemporary positivist understanding to explain magic that allows for cutesy magical technology to gloss over the inconvenient aspects of the pre-modern. Most offensively, most objectionably, Forgotten Realms is a dense, full world, so steeped in cliched lore and laid out so extensively in dull gazetteers that there is no room for a GM's creativity without excising some of the setting's existing lore and map.

Mixing Mass Combat with RPG D&D (ChicagoWiz's Games): I went back and forth through a number of mass combat systems - Chainmail, Battle System, the OD&D Swords & Spells supplement, HOTT/DBA... none of these really seemed to scratch all the itches I had. They all had their good sides, but the biggest downfall was how to realistically include the players into a combat situation where they weren't going to stride through the fields like Super Heroes (until they hit 8th to 10th level...) but they could make a meaningful contribution and have some chance of survival. Then enter David Collins of Delta's D&D Hotspot blog. In September of 2011, he released a small set of mass combat rules called "Book of War."

Star Wars, Gendered Sci-Fi, Slave Leia and Reiterating Why I’m Not Stoked for Star Wars (Cirsova): Now here’s a cultural Ouroboros. JJ Abrams is saying “Star Wars was always a boys thing,” because today’s culture is so obsessed with the notion that until the recent diversity push of today, entertainment was hopelessly gendered and probably really racist. Abrams is just saying what he’s being told, and what he’s saying is he’s trying to right the ancient wrongs of sci-fi past. Of course now he’s being dogpiled for suggesting that Star Wars was a ‘boys thing’. Look you guys, don’t you see, he’s just trying to make it less problematic for you! He’s got a boring looking lady in drab clothes to be the hero who will be teamed up with a non-threatening man who will not make aggressive passes or snark at her!

40K Bad Guys in 15mm (KJdidt on TheMiniaturesPage): Pic Heavy! 15mm Chaos – Iron Warriors, Cultists and Daemons (with a Reaver Titan to boot). Necrons, too.

Hump Day Dump Day #5: Eye Candy Edition

It really is a great time to be a wargamer, especially in 15mm.  I'd argue that we aren't so much in a Golden Age as a Platinum Age.  The shopping list in my head includes the names of at least ten manufacturers producing as wide a variety of figures and terrain and vehicles as you could hope for, and most those are of a quality that easily surpasses the 15mm figures of just 20 years ago.  You can easily find them, order them, and get them within a few weeks - again, a feature un-hoped for in my younger days.  Not only that, but you can meet, online if not in person, the guys sculpting and producing these great products and rules on a moment's notice.

So far as I'm concerned, the entire sweep of history and development of the internet has been dedicated to creating this wonderfully environment to be a wargamer.  Thanks, social media, for doing the heavy lifting.  We'll take it from here.

This edition of the humpadump is heavy on the eye-candy, so you may want to wait to go a-clicking until you've got a nice big screen to chew on these links.

Dungeons of Doom: Making a Tavern bar! (The Grinning Skull): So, while not fitting the whole dungeon theme entirely, we kick off this belated Grim’s Dungeons of Doom article with a set piece that is ever present in stock fantasy games, The Tavern bar. This’ll be first in a series detailing how to turn your modular dungeon scenics into more than just an underground lair, and lets you turn the system into a viable way to simulate entire buildings and interiors.

Battle Report: The Temple of Fate - The Final Death of the Undead Lord (The Dark Prophet Chronicles): The day had come to face the Banelord Valak Thul in direct battle. After the Templars fought their way through his undead forces they finally met him on the small river island where the necromancer changed into the form of a giant undead Terrorgheist.

Can you squeeze 15mm models into 6mm rules? (Dropship Horizon): Laserstorm rules are designed for massive battles using 6mm models. The minimum suggested game size is around nine units a side. A unit being three standard vehicles or field guns, 4 light vehicles, 6 infantry stands or one super heavy vehicle or behemoth. This is the sort of size of game I have played so far. Units are arranged into three battle groups of roughly equal size. Weapon ranges seem fine used unmodified in 15mm. The rules suggest infantry stands of 4-6 models but my figure collection would not stretch to that. I chose stands of 3 models so that my standard units of 20 models could form an infantry unit. It also takes up less real estate on table. Purists may argue that three figures do not make a fire team but it looks OK to me.

2nd Big Battle of Fantasy Empires, aka 15mm Kings of War (Mikeopolis): Yeah, we got the bug now, a small Bretonnian vs Lizardman battle on Saturday (Troy's Lizards whopped up on my Bretonnians) and then another Big Brutal Battle 6000 vs 6000 Orcs vs Dwarf/Elf alliance on Sunday. Notes to take home: Bretonnians, catapults suck and Kinights are awesome, More Knights! Orcs, catapults suck and Giants rules! More Giants! The big battle ended up in a bloody draw.

Hump Day Dump Day - Issue #4

Happy Thanksgiving!  Eat too much, laugh too loud, and sleep a little extra, but save Black Friday for some gaming.  Meanwhile, have some more fireside reading for the long weekend.

One Hour Wargames, Scenario 6 (Steve's Random Musings): I then sat down to think of a scenario, but had a bit of a brainwave and decided to have a look-see at what the next scenario was in One Hour Wargames, to see if it could be modified or used.. the scenario is based on Salamanca - flank attack on a moving column - perfect, so the decision was made...

Fall-In Eye Candy (The Man Cave): To be honest the Lad and I were so busy rushing about playing games, shopping and socialising that we only had limited wanderings around the various rooms to check out the great games, and there were indeed many. Still, I eneded up with some pretty pictures so I though I would share them (while I wait for SWMBO to go out so I can arrange my disturbingly big pile of loot for pics).

The People of Yesterday Held Different Beliefs Than We Do Today! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM? (Dyvers): Lately I've been spending a lot of time reading through the TOR.com exploration of Gary Gygax's Appendix N and wondering what is wrong with these people. Their criticisms are often not about the works they're reading but instead about the people who wrote them - people who often reflected the times they lived in by holding outdated views about morality, sexuality, race relations, social justice, and the like. As a result their objections all tend to sound the same: "Author X was writing in 1910 and held views that were common during their lifetime but are completely wrong by today's standards. What the fuck is wrong with them?" I mean who would ever imagine that someone writing more than a hundred years ago might have moral and societal values that are vastly different from the ones we have today. It doesn't end there, though...

Make sure you check back again tomorrow - I've got something really different to show you.

Hump Day Dump Day - Issue #3

Welcome to the weekly walk through the wargaming wilds of the world wide web, in which Warren waxes upon whatever weighty and witty works he wagers are worth your while. Would any wretch not want a window into Warren's warm woolgathering - a wisp of what wriggles its way into the weedy wastelands his wisdom?  What wights of whimsy wander along the way?  This winter, when wailing winds whistle in from the west, let your worry wane, and wave 'way your wait, my wolfish wunderkind,  Warn whosoever would withdraw worship that they will win their wish.  While Warren's work with the written word may be weak, it is wrought here this Wednesday in waking wonder for all to witness.

Also, something about a wren wiping a wet wallet?  I don't know.  Here's some links:

Polish Hussars (Badass of the Week): Invariably, whenever most people talk about the military prowess of the Polish cavalry, some joker busts out with some intelligent, well-constructed argument that vaguely resembles something along the order of "YA RITE HOW BOUT CHARGIN NAZI TANKS W HORSIES FTW LOLOLOL OMG I”M HILARIOUS SOMEBODY LOVE ME PLS". Well not only are the wild claims of that infamous engagement dubious at best, but it's time that the Polish cavalry – and particularly the Winged Hussars – get appropriately recognized as one of the most eye-skeweringly hardcore associations of asskickers ever assembled. These daring, brave, unabashedly-feathered badasses crushed throats up and down Europe for two centuries, annihilating battle-tested armies three times their size with nothing more than a huge-ass lance, an awesome set of ultra-cool wings, and a gym bag full of iron-plated armor ballsacks.

Normandy Mini-Campaign, Part One (Geordie's Big Battles): The scenario was a Normandy 1944 infantry probe towards Caen, called Operation Martlet. Before you could say "Jack Robinson Jam" I was in amongst it in the "patrol phase" with markers pushing forwards over what I considered very "open" aka dangerous) ground. I opted to go "Tommy" so my newly painted figures could shoot at me. The alternative was to play SS which left a tangled knot in the consciousness of my stomach. Silly really, but as I had played British before so I should be better able to pick things up from where I left off.

Fall In 2015 (O My Rurtania): I attended the HMGS Fall In convention in Lancaster, PA, last week. Had a good time as usual. Attendance on Friday afternoon seemed very sparse but did pick up considerably by Friday evening and things seemed pretty active on Saturday afternoon. Friday night, I played in Temple of the Snake Priestess, run by Howard Whitehouse, using his Chainmail Bikini rules. The game involved four teams of adventurers entering a ruined Maya-ish city with the goal of getting their astrologer to the top of one of several temples to obtain some sort of Important Sign from the Heavens.

Fluffy Boa Puzzle Mat (Here's No Great Matter): I popped into the hundred yen store yesterday to pick up some tape for work, and as I hadn't been there for a while I had a quick scour of the usual sections to see if there was anything that could be put to honest wargaming use. Lo and behold, there was a sight for terrain mat hunting eyes: 30cm square interlocking foam mats, topped with a greenish teddy bear fur type material. I grabbed four to take home and check out (I could always use them as an actual mat, I said to myself...).

Let's round things off with a post about boxes:

Tournament Transport Box, Part 3 (Lair of the Uber Geek): Sunday morning I was determined to finish up the construction of the tournament boxes. On a whim. I decided to use the remaining plywood from the 4x4 piece of plywood to make a dice tower. This is one of those projects that has zero planning so we'll see what happens. The dice "motivators" are glued in place. I'm sure their is a more technical name for these in the the world of dice tower science but I haven't bothered to look it up.

Hump Day Dump Day, Issue #2

Gabions, everyone.  Gabions.

It's Wednesday, that time of the week when Warren steals content from other blogs gives credit to just a few of the many creative geniuses laboring around the internet to provide you with free inspiration and entertainment - it's a random sampler of inspirtainment!

War Monkey has a great little terrain project for your modern/near future table.  Gabions are those wire baskets filled with rock that military forces have used for cover for over a hundred and fifty years.  They make for some cheap and easy scatter terrain:

Hesco/Gabion Barriers (Silo 1313): I only made a couple for now just to see how the would look and to share what I have learned. I think they are going to be great and work really well for my gaming needs! My plan is to use them in my Zombie games and post apocalyptic games mostly for the military units. This project cost me less then 4 Dollars! And I'll have more then enough barriers then I can think of.

Roger G-S reminds us all that killing a Gelatinous Cube is only the first step in dealing with a massive nearly invisible lump of paralytic goo:

The Bigger, Badder Galatinous Cube (Rolls, Rules, and Roles):  Remember, this is a space filled with solid jelly equal to four hill giants in a huddle. Really, it's more a surging obstacle than a monster you can trade blows with. And the trouble doesn't stop when you kill it: the cube should spread proportionately,creating a 6 foot high mound of jelly spread over 20 feet of corridor. Jelly that for a while will retain its paralytic qualities. As you clear it, more slumps to the floor.

As you are no-doubt aware, your 'umble host is a firm believer in the design philosophy of "Every Game Starts With the Box".  By way of Trojan Point's recommendation for modular Frostgrave terrain), here's a great look at one way to build modular dungeon terrain that packs up nice and tidy for storage and transport:

Paradise Ruins: Modular And Portable Table (One of the many Infiniti Forums):  They wanted a table easily portable (because they had to travel from Barcelona to Madrid), that was modular and playable. So they thought about a variant of Tetris, in pieces on 40x40cm (16x16inches more or less) boards, where they could rotate the pieces, and that the pieces fit inside each other.

And another thread from the Lead Adventure Forums featuring multiple mini-games that fit into a box including a 28mm skirmish game and a rice soldier Napoleoincs game that fits into an actual matchbox.  Scroll down for crazy fun inspiration for your next game in a box:

Transportable Minigames (A DonVoss thread at the Lead Adventure Forums): As a part of my job I travel a lot. mostly one or two day, so I olny carry hand luggage...  Hotel nights could be boring (I am not a tv watcher). So I thought it might be a good idea to get some solo wargaming under way... I grabbed a box (16x10x5 cm) and tried to fill it with some miniatures and scenery. Plastic 28s because of wight. And I had to build some small trees, because my my big one would not fit in."

Some interesting thoughts on evil in gaming from Courtney Campbell.  It's another theme-and-variation on the usual song and dance about orc babies in RPGs.  Given the clear evidence for people and ideas that are objectively evil in the real world, I'm always fascinated by people who struggle with the existence of evil in pretend worlds:

On Mordor, Where the Jock Orcs Lie (Hack & Slash), But for the most part, you're sneaking about listening to orcs. What do orcs do? They drink (grog which you can poison to make them fight each other), they brag, they piss, and they pick on "pinkskins". So if you're not interacting with the orcs, they act just like stereotypical jocks picking on nerds. The question is, what does evil look like when it isn't being evil?

The whole point is to have faceless mooks you can murder without consequence. But is that of value? Philosophically, what is the problem with accepting that the people you are killing are, you know, actually people?

Teaser time: Check back here on Friday.  I've got the next chapter of the Necromancer War all written up and ready for you.

Hump Day Dump Day, Issue #1

Lancelot Link to the rescue!
(Eureka Miniature)

A few of my favorite blogs are my favorite blogs in part because from time to time they issue a post consisting entirely of pointers to other blog posts that find interesting. Those always tickle my fancy because they expose me to cool ideas and bloggers that I might not have found on my own.

It is high time I returned the favor for anyone out there with the excellent taste to share my tastes.  So, welcome to the Wednesday link dump.  That's enough ado, let's get to it.

First up, from the "Books About Elves Are Serious Business" files:

That Woefully Incomplete Sampling of Appendix N (Jeffro's Space Gaming Blog), "When John C. Wright wrote an essay about some points I raised in my Appendix N series, the folks at File 770 had a field day. The overall effect was not unlike raw meet being dropped into a piranha pool. 

Who knows how long this would have gone on?! It could have been pages upon pages of righteous indignation, but Brian Z. spoiled the fun shortly after this by pointing out that I had actually covered the book…. The entire discussion gets tabled, with only Jim Henley even acknowledging the link."

Next up, a great point about taking things just seriously enough:

Sincere silliness (Dungeon Fantastic), "It's not ironic enjoyment, but sincere enjoyment of something twisted ironically. It's a hard difference to explain in words, but I can feel the difference between "make it a joke" and "enjoy the jokes." We and the game are in on the same jokes - laughing with the game elements, not at them.
That's why I think it keeps going. No ironic enjoyment here. Nostalgia flavored but looking back for inspiration not elusive fun that was never really had."

Big battles always make me want more time, space, and money.  Or at least a decent local convention scene:

The Big Game XV - Clearing the Viper's Nest (Dropship Horizon), "I must be doing something right. I was invited to host a second participation wargame this year, at my local gaming club TableTopNorth in Belfast...The scenario was a continuation of an ongoing campaign between the rebelling human forces of the RPK republic (near future Arabs) and their evil galactic overlords the Naga (snake like aliens). The RPK regular army forces had support from their air cavalry wing the muster troops and Ikwen militia who had been brought to earth by the Naga as agricultural slaves. The Naga had support from Malig space goblins, a conquered race and various droids."

Deep thoughts on scenario design:

Game Design #57: Asymmetry (Delta Vector), "Whilst I'm not saying to abandon attempt to balance games nor points systems are evil (in fact I am in favour of points systems to "help" balance - without accepting them as a perfect solution) - I think asymmetrical battles should play a bigger part in the already overlooked areas of scenario/mission design. After all, how many historical battles were precisely balanced? It's not an either/or situation. Asymmetry (whether we acknowledge it or not) is a key factor of warfare both before (whether it is through meta gaming the points system) and during (as you attempt to quickly neutralize your opponent and gain battlefield superiority) the battle; so why not consider it in scenario and mission design in conjunction with "balanced" points systems?"

Speaking of inspirational, this thread has some outstanding simple and evocative terrain:

Old Ben is Going To Play More Games (Lead Adventure Forum Thread), "After contributing to another thread on this forum called 'I'm a Lead Hoarder' I've realized I have become a hoarder. I am recently new to the war game world (8 years or so), and I have amassed a huge range of miniatures. Most of the miniatures I have are painted, so that's not the problem. The issue that I have is the same issue that a lot of collectors have-I own too much stuff that sits unplayed in copy boxes. This will be the thread where I'll sort it all out and actually play some games!"

And for you terrain-o-philes out there, another highly inspiration thread featuring some outstanding pulp sci-fi terrain.  This is the sort of thing I tried to do with my sci-fi city:

Planetoid 51 (Lead Adventure Forum),  Hi, here is my project that I've been working on nearly three years. I was able to glean ideas and resources from others here, so thank you. Anyways my theme involes an earth colony that was invaded by a previously unknown alien race. Earth forces are trying to reclaim the colony.

There's also a great thread on the Lead Adventure Forum talking all about how great Osprey's Black Ops is, but I wouldn't know because my copy still hasn't arrived from Amazon yet.  Not that I'm bitter about it, it's just that I'm bitter about it.  Razzin'-frazzin' shipping time to Hawaii...